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Bord Gáis Energy owner Centrica has dramatically increased its profit forecast.
t comes after the former State owned Bord Gáis hiked its prices twice last year for its 730,000 customers here, blaming higher wholesale prices and the war in Ukraine.
This included a 45.7pc increase in its electricity unit prices, adding €579 to the average annual electricity bill for Irish customers.
Gas prices also rose by 48.6pc, increasing the average bill by €526.
Bord Gáis also hiked standing charges last year taking the annual electricity charge to close to €300 before any power is used, a move heavily criticised by consumer advocates.
Centrica said on Thursday that it now thinks its full-year earnings for 2022 will soar almost eightfold compared to 2021.
The company also expects to end the year with £1bn more in cash than at the end of 2021.
In a statement, Centrica said the profit increase comes as a result of “good” asset and volumes from its infrastructure assets, which include its shared ownership of nuclear plants in the UK, as well as its gas fields.
Centrica shares rose by 5pc following the announcement this morning.
In November, Centrica had said that full-year adjusted earnings per share would be at the top end of analyst expectations. They ranged at the time from between 15.1p and 26p per share.
The figure is now expected to be over 30p, a sharp increase from the 4.1p reported in 2021.
Centrica is the largest electricity and gas supplier to British households, serving more than 10 million customers. It bought the Bord Gáis Energy business here in 2014 in a sale of State assets sparked by the financial crisis and terms of the subsequent E/IMF Bailout.
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